In an age when internet trends are emerging at the fast pace, it is important to keep on top of the latest digital marketing trends. The rising Tacoma cannabis industry has taken digital marketing to the next level. The industry has significantly changed in 2016, and it is necessary to plan your new direction and strategy. Everyone in the online marketing industry needs to know what improvements to make and how to take advantage of the new trends before competitors do. Here are several digital marketing trends in 2017 and beyond:

1) Live Streaming Video

Internet users are expecting more engaging, immediate content. Platforms for live streaming video such as Periscope, Facebook Live, and others provide just that. Viewers can share an experience in real time with live-streamed events, keeping their interest. Brands can take advantage of this trend by live streaming discussions, events, and more.

2) Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented reality has made significant advanced in the past couple of years. Pokémon GO had demonstrated that it’s possible to achieve good ROI with AR. Tech analysts expect that more brands will release AR games, ads, tools, and innovative ways to capitalize on the business potential of AR apps.

3) Immersion and 360 Videos

Augmented and virtual reality technologies are still evolving. But 360 video is more accessible right now for brands that want to can create immersive content about their products and services. Brands can record in 360 videos a product or event demonstration and their customers will enjoy more immersive and engaging experiences.

4) Native Advertising

More brands use native advertising, as consumers keep avoiding most other forms of advertising. Native advertising appears to be normal news and magazine articles, but they target readers with brand specific content. This is hidden form of advertising is not as off-putting as traditional advertising.

5) Improved Data Analytics

Data is a key factor driving everything in marketing. With the media and market landscape divided between online and traditional channels, it has become more difficult to understand data collected. Data visualization tools can make this process more intuitive and easier. There are a few data visualization tools designed to enhance the ability to intuitively understand the numbers and transform them in marketing strategies. These new data visualization tools are very useful for digital marketers who want to improve their campaigns in 2017 and beyond.

Conclusion

By understanding these new digital marketing trends, you can achieve an edge over your competitors. You can get inspired by the ways other companies have utilized live streaming video, augmented reality, 360 videos, or native advertising to their marketing advantage, and find how you can include these trends in your marketing strategy.

Hundreds and thousands of small to big businesses use WordPress to host their websites but even wondered why some of them flourish so fast while others take so much time and money?

The key to promoting and reaping the maximum benefits from your website is nothing but proper Search Engine Optimization of your content, URLs, permalinks, and even tags and categories.

What is SEO friendly WordPress URL?

A good SEO friendly URL for your WordPress website is short, sensible and keyword rich. The default structure of your website URL on WordPress is not SEO friendly which is a shame because the smarter your SEO plan is for the website, the higher are chances of it being ranked top amongst Google search.

How Do I Create a SEO friendly URL for my website?

One of the most significant solutions to creating SEO friendly URL for your website on WordPress is that you keep it not too long, include your target keywords, and not use any characters which aren’t either alphabet or numeric.

Another vital point is that you specifically categorize the URL of every page according to their content and category, so your reader can relate to what they are about to find/read on that specific page. You can do this by adding the category of your page as well as the post slug (the post name) which must contain the target keyword(s).

No matter what you do, make sure your page URL doesn’t look like http://www.john%$business.com/?p=12462

Instead, it should look like http://www.johnsbusiness.com/how-to-book-a-cab-online/

Do I Have to Individually Change the URL on Every Page?

Depending upon the version of WordPress you have installed, you may or may not need to modify every URL. WordPress 4.2 and above have included the feature of SEO friendly URLs but that doesn’t mean you totally avoid the URLs of your website.

Even if it’s all done automatically, check the URLs of every page and ensure that they are as per the SEO norms.

What are the different SEO setting on WordPress?

WordPress allows for 6 different URL name settings. These are:

Plain – strictly not to be used, not SEO friendly at all. Example – http://www.adc.com/?p=146

Day and Name – somewhat SEO friendly, URLs too long, not preferred unless you run a News website. Example – http://www.adc.com/2017/04/11/sample-post/

Month and Name – same as Day and Name, has the risk of being dated. Example – http://www.adc.com/2017/04/sample-post/

Numeric – not SEO friendly, can only be used for �Archives’. Example – http://www.adc.com/archives/23

Post Name – the most SEO friendly, short and simple. Example – http://www.adc.com/sample-post/

Custom Structure – best for larger publications with too many webpages, can be made SEO friendly by adding target keywords and special tags. Example – http://www.abc.com/%category%/%postname%/

You can also create Custom URLs for your webpages by using year, month, date, post name, post ID, category, or the name of the author. Here is a video showing you how to makes these changes.

What are the precautions to keep in mind while changing the URLs?

1. If the website is more than 6 months old and is established, changing the permalinks will risk your website to lose its existing rank and social media share count.

2. If the website is using plain URLs, you should change the URLs anyway. You will still lose the social media share counts but the chances of you ranking better are more pivotal than your social media share count.

According to the latest news, Google My Business has introduced a new pilot program that is intended to allow online businesses to directly chat with their customers through a platform referred to as the knowledge graph panel.

The new chat option has been added to the local listing and will be available once a potential customer searches for the name of your brand. The feature will then introduce a chat between the business and potential customer. The messaging process will go through the businesses SMS number or alternatively through Google Allo.

Though this feature can be available for all online businesses it can only be accessed via an invite. For the lucky enough business enterprises, an email will be sent from Google providing further information.

The new chat feature will work in the following way

To enable the messaging option, the online businesses will be required to log into the Google my business and in the Home menu, they will find the chat card. Once they confirm that they have the chat card, they will provide a readily available and active phone number that will receive text messages and will be reliable and accessible to the responding customers.

You need to be responsive

The customers will expect quick responses, internet users aren’t by nature likely to wait for long periods of time for a response. So, during your listed business hours, respond quickly to the customer’s inquiry. Once customers contact you through messaging, they will see the average response time. The shorter the response time, the more likely that your customers will contact you.

Sensitive content

During any chat with customers, be careful not to ask for sensitive information from the customers as it might cause you to lose the privilege. The sensitive information includes but is not limited to the credit card numbers, government identification numbers or social security number, other log in credentials. Avoiding the sharing of sensitive information keeps both you and your customer safe.

Editing the contact information

The app will also allow you an option to edit the phone number, this can be done by visiting the home option of your ‘Google my Business’ menu , then go to the chat card and click on the edit button and then you will be able to change the phone number.

Alternatively, you can opt to use Google Allo, to communicate with your customers. If you don’t have the Google Allo app, you can easily download it from the Google App Store.

Pokémon Go and fidget spinners are fads, but voice search for a local business is not, says contributor Jamie Pitman. With new technologies like Google Duplex coming on, local business owners should optimize for voice search. Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Google has long been visible in these auctions, not only through Express but also Play and Store. Contributor Andy Taylor evaluates its presence and assesses how it’s changed over time. Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

In part 1 of this two-part series, Contributor Simon Heseltine outlines various internal organizational structures and explains how each will help build, grow and maintain an in-house search marketing team. Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Are you looking to hire a link-building company? Contributor Julie Joyce recommends reviewing search engine guidelines before talking to service providers so you know which questions to ask and when to walk away. Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.